To Set The Caged Bird Free
by Redfoxed
Summary: Lucy embarks on a mission sanctioned by The Celestial King himself to rescue The Celestial Realm's last hope; an Archangel Mage long thought to be dead. Desna's Pradesh Family will be reunited with Zen when he is finally set free by everyone's favorite Celestial Mage after 25 long years a slave. The Pradesh Family credit goes to the Lovely Desna and the World of Fairy Tail, Mashima
1. Chapter 1

"Dammit, Lucy! No! No! And just to say it again, NO!" Erza shouted at her long-time friend and comrade from across her desk; slamming an armored fist against the trembling wood, "You cannot, and _**will not**_, go! It is beyond too dangerous, I completely forbid this!"

"I can take care of myself, Erza!" Lucy shouted right back at her. Determination, annoyance, and anger all showcased on her features, "It will only take a month and then I'll be back!"

"Absolutely not! Its Pergrande! Do you have any idea? Any at all, just how horribly women are treated in that country?! You will be worth less than dirt to them! They'll rape you, make you a slave, starve you until you're unrecognizable, and just when you think you're dead, they'll make it worse!" Erza screamed at Lucy, having no understanding as to why she absolutely needed to go on a mission to that horrible country. There weren't any jobs requested through the guild she could have picked up since any request involving Pergrande were always refused and she'd known Lucy long enough to be certain she had absolutely no ties to the treacherous place.

Lucy stared down her pseudo-sister and Guildmaster with an unwavering strength.

"Dammit, Erza! For the last time, I'm not asking for your permission or your fucking blessing! I'm going and that's it! I only told you so you'd know where I was!"

She roughly turned around and stormed away, her magic flaring and out of control with her currently foul temperament. When she reached the door of Erza's office, it flew off of its hinges and crashed forcefully against the hallway wall; drawing the attention of all the present guild members.

Erza flipped her desk to the side, not being bothered with walking around it at the moment, and hastily and haughtily followed after Lucy who was already halfway down the stairs.

"If you walk out those doors," Erza screamed in fury, but only to mask what was close to terror at Lucy being alone in such a twisted place, a land she may never return from, "your punishment for disobeying your Guildmaster will be of the utmost severity! I will suspend you from taking jobs for two years and I swear to Mavis, Lucy, I will revoke your S-Class standing permanently!"

The guild was filled with the collective sound of shocked gasps and whispers.

"You don't understand because you won't even listen! I _**have**_ to do this, I don't have a choice!" Lucy tried again for the umpteenth time, within the last hour, to get through to Erza. She was very aware of the fact that they had a large audience, but it didn't matter because she'd made the Celestial King a promise. She couldn't back out.

"I mean it, Lucy. Don't test me!"

"Erza, please don't make this harder than it has to be…"

"You will not go, even if I have to restrain you myself." She glowered, requipping twin swords.

"Then let me make it easy for you…" Lucy said as tears ripped their way from her eyes and fell to the floor. She tore her gaze away from Erza, from everyone, and stared at the floorboards. She couldn't bare to see their faces and their heartbreak when she did what she did next.

She clenched her teeth in a desperate attempt to keep from sobbing and she waved her left hand over her right, channeling magic into the guild mark she loved so much. When her hand was exposed again for the guild members to see, it was bare and void of their beloved emblem.

"I'm not your problem anymore, so neither is this." and she turned around without another word, opened a celestial gate, stepped through it as it dissipated, and just like that…Lucy, The Light of Fairy Tail, was gone from their ranks; a day the guild had never imagined it would see.

* * *

Lucy emerged from the gate she'd summoned at the guild and found herself in Hargeon. Being able to teleport via Celestial Gates was a skill she had developed over the years and it had saved her life in many fights. Natsu also approved of this skill because it meant he didn't have to take transportation nearly as often; as long as she'd been to a place before, she could get there via "gate hopping".

She'd opened the gate without thinking where she'd end up, but now she supposed it was fitting she'd find herself here of all places. The port town was where her journey with Fairy Tail had begun, and now here was where it seemed it would be ending.

Tears refused to stop streaming down her face. All she wanted to do at the moment was break down and cry herself into a stupor, but Hargeon wasn't all that far away from Magnolia, and she had to get farther away from her guild...former guild…

She had no doubt that if Erza hadn't already recovered from shock, she would soon and would be coming to drag her back, or worse, send Laxus.

A tremor struck her body.

The massive dragon slayer had essentially adopted her as a little sister after the Alvarez War was over and they returned home to Magnolia. They had become extremely close over the years and Laxus taking it upon himself to train with her had been a big component in her improvement as a mage.

She was stronger, faster, and more powerful in her magic and attacks than she had ever thought possible for her. She was S-Class ranked and she often sparred with the big blond. He almost always won, because he was a terrifying monster when it came to magic, but he was always helping her improve and she loved him for it.

He was going to be so pissed when he found out what she'd done...but it _**did**_ have to be done.

The Spirit King had summoned her a month ago and asked her to complete a dangerous task. She might not always see eye-to-eye with the humongous spirit, but she owed him her life and the lives of those she loved. He'd saved them all during the battle against the nine demon gates and now he was asking that his service be returned.

Supposedly, as per what she'd been allowed to know, nearly a year ago there was a large surge of power felt all across the Celestial Realm that had not been present in centuries.

The mages who had, once, been tasked with protecting the Celestial World, as well as it's occupants, were long thought to have been eradicated and extinct.

However, that surge of power apparently revealed that wasn't the case and that meant there was at least one more left.

An Archangel Mage.

A dangerous, ancient, and lost magic type that was more sought after for dark ploys than her own.

When she'd stated her curiosity on what that type of mage could do, she was gifted several ancient texts by The Spirit King to make sure she could properly prepare herself for this journey; for finding this person who had come out of nowhere. The legends described Archangel Mages as near unstoppable forces with unparalleled magical reserves. Deadly weapons of flesh and bone. Just one of them could stop entire companies of soldiers in their tracks. They were said to have beautiful and elegant wings like true angels; that they could be softer than anything know to man or spirit, but could instantly turn hard enough to slice steel into pieces with unbelievable ease. They were warriors, protectors of two bridged worlds, and they sounded absolutely terrifying.

At first, all the spirits had been able to find on The Archangel Mage was that he was somewhere in the northern continents. The power surge had not lasted more than three minutes before it disappeared again and the entire Celestial World was left scrambling for information. Who this person was, where they were, why hadn't they ever felt them before, and why now after centuries of nothing.

It wasn't something that was often discussed, but The Celestial World was apparently falling apart and withering away a little bit at a time and it was becoming a serious and unavoidable issue.

Lucy had learned that, had The Spirit World been under the protection of an Archangel Mage like it should have been, the whole fiasco of her Spirits eclipsing years ago would have never happened.

The barriers between The Worlds were fading, becoming thin, and this mage she was setting out to find would be able to heal the rifts and fight off any darkness attempting to seep through the cracks to corrupt other worlds.

Months and months passed after the initial surge and any spirits adept and proficient in research or tracking were tasked with narrowing down where the surge had come from. All of their tireless efforts had become fruitful a month ago. They knew everything they needed to know. They knew exactly where he was located, who he was, and even how he'd managed to go undetected by the Celestial Realm his entire life.

In a perfect world, a spirit of high rank would have probably gone to greet this saving grace of a mage and bring him before The King.

However, this wasn't a perfect world. They knew everything they needed to, but the problem was occurring with _where_ he was.

**Pergrande.**

Erza was right. That place was horrible and twisted in ways most couldn't fathom. It's kindest reputations made her want to hide away, out of sight, and pretend it just didn't exist while she tried not to lose her lunch.

The entire country firmly believed that women were worthless creatures not worth malnourished dirt, and their minds were not to be changed. Women were used for breeding and nothing more. Any man who even considered lying with a woman for pleasure was shunned and thought to be repulsive.

So she could completely understand why her beloved Guildmaster and sister-figure wouldn't want her to go. A woman as strong and beautiful as Lucy would stick out more than a vulcan in a bathhouse.

In all honesty, and if everything went as planned, she would spend the next month or two hiding, lurking, and switching off between running and fighting for her life.

Pergrande was a twisted place and there was a very prominent possibility that she wouldn't be returning home to Magnolia. She'd already accepted that possibility, that she would likely die trying to save this man she'd never even met. It had surprised her at how easily she'd made peace with it. When she really thought about it, though, it made sense. If it meant that her spirits and all the others who depended on the Celestial World would get to continue living in peace, she was okay with that fate. Her life, one life, did not outweigh the lives of millions.

Aside from the obvious glaring problem that going to Pergrande presented, there was more, because of course there just had to be.

This man, this already star-born warrior, had apparently been captured as a child and forced to live out his life as an enslaved gladiator. Her spirits estimated he'd spent over 25 years a slave.

She was honestly terrified.

This was a man who had been treated horribly his entire life, knew nothing but fighting and killing to survive, and she had to get him to trust her and then help him to escape "mostly unharmed" as stache-face had so gracefully put it.

Her spirits, her beloved ancient friends, they had pleaded with their king to reconsider, to find someone else to do this. They all loved her so very much, every bit as much as she loved them, but the reality they didn't want to face was that there was no one else.

There weren't many Celestial Mages left now and out of those remaining, there were even fewer strong enough to carry out such a mission. What's more, The King didn't trust anyone else not to take advantage of The Archangel Mage and a compulsion between Celestial and Archangel magic she didn't fully understand.

Eventually they had all accepted that her going was unavoidable and they swore they would do everything they could to keep her alive...everyone but one, that is.

Loke was still fighting against this, pleading with his king to at least allow Lucy to bring one of her guild mates along with her, but he wouldn't allow it. The Spirit King had forbid anyone who was not a spirit or Lucy, know of this.

It was strictly Celestial business and as ridiculous as Lucy thought his rules usually were...she actually agreed with him this time.

This Archangel Mage would have magical reserves overflowing with Celestial Magic and if how often she herself was abducted was any reference, she could only imagine how it would be for him if word somehow managed to get out. Every dark guild and mage would be after them both and then her mission would be impossible.

For once, she agreed with keeping secrets and Loke was angry; at her, his king, the entire situation. He wasn't speaking to her at the moment, wouldn't even answer her summons, and she hoped he would come around soon because aside from missing his company, she knew she might never get to see him again, if this rescue mission went wrong and she died. She knew he would blame himself, like he still did with Karen, and she didn't want that for her loyal lion.

So she sighed, gathered up the pieces of her heavy heart and as she walked down the streets of the port town of Hargeon she was internally at war with a lot of things. Her task at hand, the future, her family at Fairy Tail she couldn't bring herself to properly say goodbye to, and her own mortality were all on her mind.

All she had to do was break Zen Pradesh out of The Sky Reach Gladiator Arena deep within the heart of Pergrande and manage to get him to Bosco, to his family of reputably equally terrifying mages that had every reason to believe he was dead and zero reason to trust her.

What could be hard about that?


	2. Chapter 2

**_Okay so, I know I started this months ago and then just sort of...disappeared, but here's the next chapter and I honestly love it so much._**

**_A huge thanks to StarryFire14 for adopting the role of my Beta and for giving me the inspiration to keep on writing these things! Her enthusiasm is infectious. If you haven't read her works already, idk what to tell you other than you need to get on it. Seriously, you won't regret it._**

**_On a similar note to that, Starry and I have decided that our writing clicks together way too well to let that go to waste, so we've decided to write a freaking badass colab. "Honest to Mavis, 'Best' 'Friends' " can be found on her Archive account and my account. (Both under the same usernames) You'll love it, I swear. So read it and review, we want to hear your feed back!_**

**_Now on to Chapter 2 of the story! Please leave your reviews, I want to read them. They bring me joy lol_**

**_"_****_It matters not how long it takes,'_** the words had seemed to ricochet restlessly off of the blood spattered stone walls of his confining cell, **_'You will give in or you will descend into madness trying to resist; and then I will have you anyway."_**

Those words, spit at him years ago through the same unforgiving metal bars he stared past now, taunted him whenever he found himself immersed in darkness.

In this place, there was almost always darkness, so he almost always had time to drown in the repetitive threat of the then Prince's words.

Prince Karadin had always had an unhealthy obsession with him in some form or another, as it adapted over time.

Initially, he had been a living trophy; a symbolic victory to hold over the customs of a culture commonly viewed as perverse in the country of Pergrande. This was in the beginning, when he had only been a boy of a few years old, not long after his mother had given her life in vain to save him and unwittingly submit him to the fate that was his life today.

He didn't know much of that day, and being so young at the time, nor could he speak fondly of his mother's memory; he had but two and he could not see one without seeing the other. One of her singing to him as she cradled him close, lulling him into peaceful sleep; the other of her flesh burning off of her bones as the explosion embraced them both.

The explosion.

Of all the things he couldn't remember, he wished that could be one of them. The searing hot pain that had surrounded him before his magic had come to life within him and his newly activated wings had encased him, had been an anguish that no person should have lived through. Only the dead should know that kind of pain. There were times, even still, that he would find himself panicked at the phantom feeling of being at the epicenter of an explosion and even though he knew it to only be in his head, in that moment it just didn't help. Not when he was blinded by the memory of his previously unmarked flesh beginning to blister and peel.

The darkness of his cell was often welcomed by him in moments like those, where his mind would revert to the past, because in the darkness it was easier to remind himself that he was just reliving the old trauma and that he wasn't actually with his mother again, burning alive in the hot white light.

The darkness, his cell, this arena.

He hadn't always lived here, but it was by far preferred to the grotesque palace the royal family had kept him shrouded in, not letting it be known they were hiding the child of a world renowned and respected ambassador.

Yes, he knew who he was, or at least who he would have likely been, if life had gone a different way.

He knew his father was a revered ambassador and that he was alive and happy. He knew he was born Boscan, that he had an older brother he couldn't remember. He knew that after the news of the death of both his mother and himself had found its way to his father, that he had eventually moved on with his life and adopted six other children. He knew that they were all powerful wizards and living a life of adventure he would love to get the chance to experience.

He knew all of this because of the guards.

Sky Reach was filled to the brim with the lowest scum Earthland had to offer, but the worst among them were the guards who kept the prisoners like himself.

Karadin, now King of Pergrande after murdering his own father in cold blood, owned this Pit of Hell and therefore the guards in it, too. There was no one to control them, apart from the king himself, and he didn't give a shit in the slightest. So the guards were notorious for doing horrible, despicable things without reprimand or consequence. They would rape the newer captured gladiators into broken submission and would pay high tolls to the owners of the top fighters, to do just the same. They beat anyone who got out of line to the brink of death, if not completely and sometimes they would kill just for sport. The female slaves they captured would almost always be slaughtered immediately, and if by chance they were kept instead of gutted and survived serial rapings, starvation, and the torture of living in their worst imagined hell, they were sold for breeding with the top gladiators to produce strong offspring to sell to the highest bidder.

But, by far, their favorite thing to do was to rig the fights. Knowing the outcome of a fight you bet large sums of money on meant guaranteed profit and in Pergrande, men lived only for sex, power, and gold.

They would bribe the gladiators with certain services to get them to play out the fights the way they wanted. Some of the most common services the guards would provide as motivators for doing what they said were bringing them extra food or food that had not yet begun to rot, bringing them a freshly captured woman to sate their needs after a fight, beer, bedding, and a highly appealing offer to most in this situation, a quick death.

The guards had tried all of these things with him. Sometimes offers were individual, sometimes they were combined, but he'd always refused them, not wanting to let them win in any way where he was concerned.

That is, until one of Karadin's personal guards, who knew who he truly was, discovered a bribe that worked on the intimidating man.

Information on who he was and the ongoings of his family.

All it took was once, a cover image of a magazine that portrayed his father and eldest brother, and they all knew they had him hooked. Now, the guards would bring him magazines, articles, pictures, and news clippings pertaining to his surprisingly famous family in order to earn his favor and compliance, and then he would win his next fight the way they wanted him to. Down to nearly every detail. Then they would collect the money they'd won from rigging the fight and he'd go back to his cell in short-lived peace; craving to be free of this place and to fly through the huge expanse the sky seemed to be and to, one day, meet his family.

Truthfully though, he never saw that becoming a reality.

He was shackled at all times and the magic he knew he possessed was constantly suppressed with multiple magic canceling cuffs. Another cuff was added to him every time his magic grew too dense to be contained. He wore a total of five now; one around each ankle and wrist and one around his neck that Karadin had told his guards to place there purely out of the satisfaction of the ownership it represented. Despite their efforts otherwise, the limiters never lasted long. His magic was always growing in strength and even though he didn't have access to its full abilities in this place, he could always feel it there within him, growing with each passing day. On occasion, when he found himself in dire need, two enormous, black feathered wings would sprout from marked designs on his shoulder blades. After that happened, people who were unlucky enough to actually see his intimidating wings, usually ended up dead; sometimes it was intentional on his part, other times, it was out of his control.

He had never felt the full extent of his capabilities because those at Sky Reach feared what he might do without restriction. And with good reason. As it was, he was well known to swiftly end the life of any man or woman who dared to enter his cell and touch him forcibly, or at all, really.

He'd killed countless guards, other gladiators, noble women, and some female captives that had gotten too brazen with him when they were thrown in his cell with the objective of baring his child to save their own lives.

The few other slaves he had spoken to on rare occasions, that were from countries far from here, had made that seem a ridiculous idea and perhaps where they were from, it was. However, not in Pergrande. The only reason a woman wasn't beaten in this fucked place was if they were pregnant, because even though the men in Pergrande generally despised the female form with great ferocity, it didn't negate the fact that men cannot bear children. So really, conceiving a child was the only option for women in this country to keep their lives and he couldn't fault them for it. But that didn't mean he was going to let them touch him.

Never again.

As Zen began to grow older and he began to grow taller, broader, and into a man, Karadin's interest in him had changed and the change was drastic.

He had never been treated with the best regards, after all, just because he lived in the palace for many years did not change that he was a slave to them; a personal slave to the newly crowned King of Pergrande, in fact.

Somewhere around the time that he would have reached the age of fifteen, Karadin's eyes began to follow him, full of hunger. For months, he desperately tried not to pull away in revulsion when The King would trail his hands over his much too young body. The last thing he had wanted to do at the time was risk offending the high tempered and merciless man, such an occurrence could result in a severe punishment.

But then came the night where everything changed and Zen no longer cared to avoid the risk.

Karadin had ordered the young man be brought to his bedchamber. When he resisted, he was drugged and taken to The King regardless of his now silent protests. He was stripped naked, cleaned, and tied face down in the mattress. With Zen drugged and helpless, Karadin had entered his chambers and ordered everyone out. He mounted the bed, believing he would sate his perverse desires he had for the maturing young man, but it wasn't until much later that Karadin learned that the magic his favorite toy annoyingly possessed, cured the body of any impurities. The sedatives had burned through his system in rapid fashion, far faster than anyone could have predicted, and just as Karadin was about to rob him of any innocence a slave child might still possess, Zen's compliance ended. The drugs had completely dispersed from his body and all he was left with was confusion and the surprised restriction of being tied in place. He panicked and began thrashing about aggressively, trying to break free. In his desperation, and for the first time since the explosion, his wings sprouted free from his back in a glorious manner. One wing managed to strike Karadin's bare chest and with great force, sent him barreling across the room to roughly collide with a wall.

Guards stormed the room, hearing the much too loud disturbance and found their King nearly unconscious against a wall while the young slave was using massive black wings to free himself from his restraints. They quickly removed their lord from the room and detained the boy with great struggle, losing several lives in the process. They threw magic cancelling cuffs around his wrists, causing the wings to vanish and they quickly sedated him once more. As he was pulled out of the room from his wrists by two guards and two more flanked on either side, they passed their awakening King in the hallway. As Karadin looked upon the Boscan Ambassador's son, his eyes ignited with a burning need for victory after his humiliation.

**_'_****_Throw him in the pits!'_** Karadin had yelled venomously, **_'He will learn his place beneath me!'_**

After that, Zen had spent an entire week in the dark confines of a forgotten cell at Sky's Reach before Karadin came to claim his victory. He was fed rarely and too little portions. At least twice a day during that week, guards would enter the cell to beat him into unconsciousness and then leave his bloodied body crumpled on the dirt floor. He was never cleaned and was given water only three times.

Despite his regular beatings, he was touched in no other way. Karadin wanted him broken, but he was to be the only one to _have _him.

When Karadin appeared outside of the cell bars a week later, he was dressed in the finest of clothes, holding his head pompously high. Zen had just stared at him with intense hatred, and with his unclothed body covered in nothing but dried black blood and grime from the pits, he looked insane and feral.

Karadin, angered further, saw in the boy's eyes that he would not submit.

Irate with his failure, he sealed Zen's fate for the next fifteen years in a single phrase.

**_'_****_Throw him in The Hall.'_** he spoke coldly as he walked to the exit, **_'If he survives the night, tomorrow he fights.'_**

Zen quickly learned what 'The Hall' was after that. Guards dragged his weakened body to a massive room with no windows and a single door. Here was where Sky's Reach allowed their gladiators to "socialize". The guards never went in until it was time to move the prisoners back to their cells, it was too dangerous.

Just before they threw Zen into the room, to the lack of mercy found in there, one of the guards slammed him against the door and raped him until he was satisfied. If The King didn't give a shit anymore about having the kid first, he was going to take advantage of that and do it himself; he wouldn't give the slaves on the other side of this door the privilege of fucking him first. When the guard, that Zen would later learn was named 'Bram', was finished with him, he tossed him in the room with the gladiators to spend the night.

That entire night, with little reprieve, Zen was raped by the twisted men in The Hall; some of them truly vile, others simply broken beyond repair by this place. His body too weak and starved to fight back, paired with the much too strong magic cancelling cuffs still secured around his wrists, left him defenseless. He screamed in pain until his throat bled from the strain and tears ran from his eyes until his body no longer had enough water to spare; he convulsed silently after that, until the pain sent him into unconsciousness.

When the next morning had come, he was indeed alive, but had never wished for death so completely. The guards didn't care, they just threw him into the arena with a much too heavy sword for his malnourished and aching body and waited for him to die.

Once again, he did not die.

He'd had no battle experience, but he had somehow known what to do, what moves to make, and he managed to run the large sword through his opponent's chest before he passed out in exhaustion.

King Karadin watched him from his private box in the stands and found himself impressed at the young slave's perseverance. His desire to have him in his bed grew to new, dangerous, heights. He wanted him now, more than ever, but decided that he could be patient and wait until the boy's spirit completely broke and he would be willing to submit to his King, no matter how long it would take.

Years passed and Zen grew bigger, he grew stronger and smarter everyday. His skill in battle had become unmatched and feared by any opponent sent his way and he was the undefeated, Championed Gladiator of Sky's Reach.

Now, none of the other gladiators dared to lay a hand on him while he was forced to sit in The Hall, for fear of their lives. Unless, of course, death was their goal...and for some, it was.

He was a crowd favorite, not that he gave a shit, and they had named him 'The Dark Eagle' in homage to his black wings and skilled annihilations.

Karadin, despite being willing to outwait Zen's sheer will, grew impatient with each passing day and slowly began to descend into madness himself. With each fight that The Dark Eagle won, the next would be harder. He'd started fighting off one man at a time, then two, then 5, and then a dozen. It wasn't enough for Karadin, none of them lived and his slave grew stronger and more self assured with each victory. So he began paying scientists to create abominations to fight the winged man. Parts human, parts beast - just like The Dark Eagle. He called them 'Berserkers". They were rabid creatures, unyielding, fearless, and without pain, but even they fell to the sword of The Champion.

All of his futile efforts to break Zen's iron will only made him stronger. Karadin grew frenzied in his search for a solution and he knew someday soon he would find it, but for now, he would continue to attempt to break the man physically and reap the profits his slave's victories brought to his vast fortune. If his pet bird happened to die in the process, then so be it.

Now, as Zen crouched on his heels in his cage, he heard the beginnings of the crowd's excited chanting, calling from the stands for him to fight. They never told him in advance when he was going to fight, Karadin has specifically requested it be that way in the hopes that one day they would catch him off guard, but that wasn't ever going to happen - he was always on high alert.

He also noticed the increasing presence of guards at the entrance of his cell.

"Hey, Freak," The head guard, Bram, taunted him from outside the bars, "We've got some business with you. Put your back against the wall and don't fucking move. You should know the damn drill by now."

He definitely knew the drill.

Every guard that was prepared to enter The Dark Eagle's cell removed their swords from their belts and leaned them against a nearby wall. The Champion was a formidable fighter without a weapon, but give him the opportunity to take your sword from your hand and you'd find yourself embraced by the cold arms of death. All weapons were banned in this particular cell, they'd lost too many men to their own steel in another man's hand.

He stood up to his full, intimidating, height and squared his massively broad shoulders. Getting into a fighting stance, he ignored the orders to put his back against the far wall and instead slightly bounced back and forth in place, warming up his muscles for a fight.

The guards saw his noncompliance, but they had known it would happen this way. They opened his cell door anyway and all at once, a dozen guards stormed into his cell, trying to corral him into a corner.

One guard managed to get close enough, but Zen slammed his fist against his face. He went down hard, instantly unconscious.

Another guard attempted to catch him from behind, but must have forgotten who he was fighting, because not two seconds later he lay on the ground holding his snapped arm.

Four dead men and many broken body parts later and they had just barely managed to push him up against a wall and secure another limiter onto his wrist.

He instantly felt the drain and when the guards released their grip on him, he staggered and nearly fell over.

One of the guards, pissed about his dead friends, knocked Zen to the ground with a punch across the face and kicked him in the side once he was down.

Then they left, a single scathing comment falling behind them as they dragged the lifeless bodies of their fallen comrades from The Dark Eagle's cage. Zen slowly got up as the door to the arena side of his cage began to rise, indicating his next match. It was time to fight.

They'd forced him to become this formidable monster and, one day, The Dark Eagle would kill them all just to prove he could; then, after leaving a massacre and his slave life behind him, Zen Pradesh would find his way home. Of that he was certain.

But, for now, he just had to survive the day.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy had always harboured a secret love for Hargeon. If it hadn't been for her guild and the family she had built in Magnolia, she would have no doubt taken up residence here. It was small and peaceful, the people were kind and life was simple. It was a port town, so many different kinds of things and people passed through here, but so few stayed. The town as a whole had grown tremendously in their trust of it's magic wielding occupants.

When she had first visited, so many years ago now, there had only been a single magical shop full of knock-offs and party tricks. Now, there were dozens popping up all over the place with real magical objects, artifacts, and books and people flocked to them with true interest and excitement; it warmed her heart.

She quickly walked through the streets, keeping her head down, trying not to draw attention to herself. The less people that saw her here, the better. She didn't want word to spread that she had passed through here, even though she knew her efforts would likely be in vain. It didn't matter if she'd just up and quit the guild, that she'd just thrown the past decade in everyone's faces like it meant nothing, she knew someone would be coming after her to bring her back. If Erza didn't come herself, then Fairy Tail's Seventh Master would likely be calling Laxus right about now, pulling him from his vacation - that she had finally convinced him to take - to track her down and drag her back for reinstatement and then some kind of humiliating punishment.

If for some reason Laxus couldn't do it, she knew the next people Erza would recruit would be Natsu and Gray. They were both off on a mission that had requested the both of them up in Iceberg. Even though that was nearly a week"s worth of travel away from Hargeon, Lucy knew that they'd raise hell when they got here and she expected no less. Add to that Natsu's mythically astute sense of smell and Gray's tenacity in getting whatever he sets his mind to and she just knew they would find her wherever she went - tearing town after town apart. So it was best to get the biggest head start she could and move onto the next stage of her mission as soon as possible.

...But that was proving to be a challenge.

Over the many years she'd been a working mage, she had come to Hargeon many times with her guildmates. She had to force herself not to stop and walk into some of the shops along the way - there were some that held precious memories for her that she wanted to relive for what could be the last time. This place, it wasn't home, but it was close.

She walked past the cute little cafe, decorated in soft blue and yellow swirls - plants of all kinds on every available surface. Wendy just absolutely loved this place to pieces. She didn't stop, but oh, how she wanted to. She cherished every memory she'd ever crafted with the beautiful young Sky Maiden. She had loved watching her grow into the fierce dragoness she was now and wanted nothing more than to continue watching her thrive.

She successfully kept walking as she passed between an armory and a high-end bakery - parallel to each other - that Team Natsu would lose Erza to every time they visited. Many memories of having to drag Titania by the tips of her armored boots to get her to leave, threatened to lure her in once more - just for a quick peek...

The Koi Pond in the town square was where she'd eaten lunch with Happy on numerous occasions. The Blue Exceed had completely wormed his way into her heart and curled himself around it. She'd likely never again get to chase him around the guild hall in jest as retribution for his playful taunting - it wasn't fair.

She wondered if she would ever get to browse the stores in the shopping district again, attempting - and failing - to take Gray clothes shopping to find something he wouldn't shed at any given opportunity. The naked stranger who had once asked to borrow her underwear had become her brother-in-arms and in life. She would miss their late night talks, their ice skating practice in the winter...so many other things she'd seemingly taken for granted.

There was the diner that she'd sat in with Evergreen late into the night, getting to know her better over a few cups of tea. The Fairy Mage declaring that if she was good enough to be Laxus' sister than she was worth the effort to befriend.

The little dive bar where Cana frequently drank her under the table smelled the same as she ambled around it. It was at that bar that they had entrusted the few precious memories of their mothers to each other, deepening their bond and their camaraderie.

The bookstores that were peppered here and there, throughout different shopping districts, called to her. Often, she'd ventured to them with Levy as Gajeel and Pantherlily trailed behind closely - pretending to be inconvenienced.

But it was the hardest of all not to stop and stare at the place where her journey with Fairy Tail had officially begun. Where she'd first encountered Natsu and he'd unintentionally saved her life by braking the love charm Bora had placed over her - merely with his boorish personality.

After all this time, after all the trials and conflict they had endured, Natsu was still her most dear friend. She didn't even say goodbye to him, not that she had said goodbye to anyone really, but she felt the most guilty for leaving him without an explanation. If she ever made it back home, or even if she never did, she hoped he would find it in himself to forgive her.

Despite all of those places calling to her with a siren's promise of comfort, she managed to find her way down to the docks, to a boat she knew could get her where she needed to be.

She took quick stock of her person. She was a reminiscent catastrophe on legs.

Sure, she'd nearly been abducted by Bora that first night and, yes, plenty of bad things had happened to her since then, but so many wonderful things did as well. Fairy Tail had been the home she'd always wanted; lively, vibrant, and warm. The people there, her team in particular, truly cared for her and she loved them all so much. It had never once been just a job.

Now...now it was all out of her reach and there was truly no one to blame; this was just the way things had to be.

She could just imagine the confused expressions of her family at Fairy Tail, right now.

She'd taken great caution in making sure nobody knew about the purpose of her trip, left no clues that she would be leaving at all, up until today. So she knew nobody would understand this.

It's not what she wanted, but its how it needed to be.

"...'am. Excuse me, Ma'am? Can I help you?" a rough, weathered voice called out.

"What? Oh! I'm so sorry, my thoughts have been...wandering."

The short old man who stood in front of her on the dock slightly narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Some would say, be it unwise, wandering by the ocean without your wits about you. The Deep is not a forgiving place."

"I assure you," Lucy stated firmly, subconsciously reaching up to run her finger tips over her covered Aquarius mark, "the ocean will do no harm to me. But you're right, I should be paying attention."

He waited expectantly through the following silence.

She cleared her throat and spoke to him quietly, "I've been told you can get me out of Fiore and keep it quiet."

"I'm not sure I understand what you're implying…" he glanced around nervously, eyeing the people passing by.

"I need to go far North. It doesn't matter where. I just need to do it soon and I need extreme discretion."

She dug through her bag for a moment and then handed the man a thick envelope, "Can you help me, or not?"

Deftly, the old man peered into the envelop and ran his fingers over the nearly 500,000 Jewel that he found. He glanced around once more for potential danger or a set-up. He deemed the payment acceptable and the baggage it came with, low-threat. Even if she did seem to be acting strange, it wasn't his business. He tried to keep out of his passengers' personal lives. A lot of people found their way onto his vessel when they were looking to escape the lives they were in. His ship made quite a few cargo stops to many different countries and some people would use that as an opportunity to smuggle themselves out of the country that they were in. But really it wasn't his business, he'd been an immigrant himself many years ago - looking for a new start and a better shot at life. All of the people that found their way to his boat would have just found a different way to get where they were going if he refused to take them. At least this way he could help to provide safe passage with minimal question. He figured that perhaps the beautiful young blonde woman got caught up running with the wrong people or was perhaps fleeing an abusive relationship. He'd seen it before, but it wasn't his business, so he let her pass.

Speaking in a low voice, he ordered, "Quickly, get on board. Find a crew member and they will show you where you can hide until we get far enough from the port."

She nodded, thanked the wise-eye man and did as told - wasting no time in finding her way onto the ship.

A gruff crew member led her below the deck to a cramped hidden room. There were five other people already stowed there - a young man in his early twenties, an elderly woman, another woman close to Lucy's age and two small children. They were all huddled together in a corner, trying to be as small and invisible as possible. She couldn't help but wonder why there were all here. She was curious to know if they thought the same about her.

Before the crew member, a weathered middle aged man with sun hardened skin, closed the door to the secret compartment, Lucy asked, "How long until we are far enough from the port to walk around freely?"

He responded to her query as if it meant nothing, "Don't worry about it, Lady. You can stretch your legs if we find the time."

He moved to close the door but Lucy halted it with a firm grip on the edge, "Not good enough," she challenged with a stare that would have made him cower internally if he were a smart man - alas, that didn't seem to be the case, "I want a time frame."

They stared each other down for many moments until the man relented, deciding there were better ways to spend his time, "It should be about two hours."

She nodded and released the door as he moved to leave again. Feeling a small blow to his pride, the man attempted to taunt her before sealing her in a dark and confined space.

"I know exactly who you are." he spoke clearly, for the others in the room to hear also.

She wasn't surprised that he recognized her. She was a fairly famous mage to those who kept tabs on the magical world. There was a hidden threat somewhere within his statement, but Lucy wasn't surprised about that either. She tended to make men who were insecure feel uncomfortable, sometimes it was fun, but now, she was willingly allowing this man to put her in a box of a room. She needed him to know she wasn't going to deal with any tricks or mistreatment. She'd been held captive too many times not to be weary of a situation such as this one.

"Then you should know that I will break down this door if I don't hear any updates when two hours is up and I will personally seek you out for the answers I want. You should also know, that is a promise." She glared and he only grunted in response before he rolled his dull eyes and quickly sealed the door, his heavy boot steps melding with the noise of the ship as he went above deck.

"Mama," she heard one of the children call out in the thick darkness of the room, "it's too dark, I'm scared."

"Hush now," the young woman soothed, the wood beneath her groaning as she rocked in place, "its okay. It's all going to be okay."

Lucy heard the two children begin to sniffle and could tell they were trying to hold back their tears - trying their hardest to be brave for their mother. She understood why they were afraid. They were so young, hiding in the darkness, on a ship to who knows where - fleeing a situation they likely didn't understand.

Feeling empathetic, Lucy allowed for a small amount of her magic to flow through her and down her arm. As she concentrated, she formed her raw golden energy into a soft-hued shimmering orb and tossed it gently into the air, allowing for its light to encase the small room as it bobbed and hovered in the middle of the small space.

She'd learned how to materialize her magic outside of her summonings a long time ago, it had been a difficult concept for her to wrap her head around as a holder mage, but now, it required very little effort.

The sniffling children opened their eyes to stare at the warm glowing orb and their mother and the young man looked toward her, "Thank you, ma'am. That's very kind of you." the mother spoke genuinely.

"It isn't a problem," Lucy assured, smiling at the little boy in his mother's lap, "besides, he's right, it was much too dark in here. We can't have that."


End file.
